Family,

"I love tall people because they are closer to heaven than the rest of us!" - someone told me that this week and it made me smile, so I thought I would pass it on. I am sure each of you feel the same!

This week was a very special week for me as Olya was baptized on Wednesday and confirmed on Sunday. I spoke at the baptism about gues what? Baptism! It was really hard for me to make it through the talk because I am prone to getting emotional when I talk, plus it was such a special moment anyway. I talked about meeting her dad on the street and the first time she came to church and how it has been a privilege to see her conversion. And of course I shared some verses from the scriptures explaining the significance of baptism. Elder Ward baptized her (he was with us in Uzhhorod and him and his companion taught her there). Then on Sunday she asked me to confirm her, and I did. She is so great. After getting the Holy Ghost she gave her first talk (on faith) and ended up saying the closing prayer in sacrament meeting. She is going to be a terrific member of the church.

Mom, I am glad that Yuri got in touch with you. He asked me "should I send a message to your mom?" And I told him "Yes, of course!" He is such a nice man. I am really glad to be his home teaching companion. Going on splits with him will be great. We have four families on our list. I know two of them, so we have some work to do. On Sunday we sang "I'll go where you want me to go." Brother Yuri got the inspiration from this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov9OoBM8GPw And that it was pretty close to the version that we did with all the different parts. We had a few rehearsals this week to get ready. It went really well. Brother Yuri called me last night and read the message that you sent him. That was a nice treat!

I spent quite a bit of time with the branch president this week going to inactive members with my companion. We all have a really good time together. President Roman is always really eager to help and let us help him!

Yes, we did get two Ukrainian missionaries who were serving in Russia. One of them is in L'viv and he only has a few more months left on his mission. He is a very sharp elder.

What else did I do this week? I got a hair cut, worked in the office for a bit, and did some planning. This week on Sunday we will be going to ternopil again so we had to get everything set up with that. This week we also have a sports day that was set up by the second counselor in the branch presidency for Saturday. He is 19 and a way cool guy! He speaks really good english.

That's all I really have to report from the week!

I hope you have a good week!

Love,

Elder Mitchell Hadfield